When the RAF invaded Texas!

Air Classics, Jun 2000 by Brown, Ben L

Flight operations began with 80 hours in the PT-17 Stearman in Primary. There was no Basic - you went directly into Advanced training, flying 120-130 hours in the AT-6A Texan. All cadets were assigned to a civilian instructor, and the RAF had a few RAF check pilots, while the AAF commanding officer did some flight checks with the AAF cadets. Each instructor had at least four and sometimes five cadets in Primary, and four in Advanced. In both Primary and Advanced, great emphasis was put on day and night cross-country, hooded instrument training, and low-level navigation.

In Primary, cadets flew solo on cross-country, often in poor weather, and in night operations. Frequent instrument practice under the hood in the Stearman taught the use of needle, ball, and airpseed. There was much instruction on aerobatics in both the Stearman and later on in the AT-6. There was heavy emphasis also on formation flying, and air-toair gunnery as well as lots of aerobatics. Cross-country flights of 1500 miles were common, and the low-level flights were limited to 200 feet. On the long cross-country flights, one student would do the flying and one student would act as navigator. At refueling stops, the cadets would switch positions, so everyone got an equal amount of piloting and navigating.

Terrell is located about 50 miles south of Greenville, Texas. The AAF had a huge basic training field there, where they flew BT-13s - the old "Vibrators." For many of the American and some of the RAF cadets, it was great fun to fly up to Greenville and "rat race" with the AAF cadets in their BT-13s. The AT-6, of course, was superior to the BT-13.

Cadets were free to leave the base every evening, but had to be back by midnight on weekdays. There was not much entertainment in Terrell -just a small movie theater, a few small stores and gas stations, and drug stores. On weekends, everyone went to Dallas, and you could return anytime as long as you got to your first class or the flight line on time. Cadets could have their own cars if they wished, though only a few of the Americans did, and those who had autos were quite popular, The people in Dallas were just great to the RAF cadets, and most could spend the whole week-end in Dallas as the guest of some local resident, never spending a dime.

Since Texas was a dry state, bootlegging was the going crime of the day. Rot-gut whiskey was available to those who wanted it. I soon found out that the RAF cadets did a hell of a lot of drinking, more so than any of the AAF cadets. On Sunday nights, they came back to the barracks in pretty poor shape - how they managed to fly the next day was a mystery to me.

The civilian flying school provided an excellent mess hall, cafeteria-style, with an outstanding menu. They also had a small drugstore, soda fountain, and snack bar. A complete food service was provided late in the evening after night flying. There were many young girls employed in the mess hall, ground school, Link trainer, maintenance hangars and as parachute packers, so there were a few new romances going on all the time. Some of the British came back to the States after the war and married American girls.